I am a terrible gardener. Period.
When I buy a plant from a nursery and it says “hardy” on the sticker – that’s a challenge to me because I will probably still end up killing that plant. I don’t know why but I just can’t make things grow.
Some years ago, I had a tomato vine that was actually going along pretty well. However, during a storm, the best branch was partially broken off the main vine. I didn’t want to lose it so, with all my horticultural knowledge and experience, I tried to join it back on to the vine – by drilling it on. Needless to say, my attempt was unsuccessful.
Because of the storm and my poor efforts, the branch withered and died – it was never going to grow any more tomatoes again.
All Christians, at one level or another, want to be fruitful. We want to live a productive life. We may not always have a clear idea of what that fruit will look like, but we know that God doesn’t want a static life. Similarly, we know that Churches should be places of growth and fruitful maturity.
But the question invariably comes, “What do we need to do to bear the fruit?”
Jesus gives the answer in John 15:7-8, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be called my disciples.”
The key to producing fruit is abiding.
Just as the branch on my tomato vine could do nothing once it was apart from the vine, so we can’t do anything apart from Christ (John 15:4-5). No amount of human effort, no volume of expertise, no quantity of resources will bear any lasting fruit apart from Christ.
But, when we do abide well, the product isn’t just any fruit. It is “fruit that will abide.” (John 15:16) Normally, the phrase in John 15:16 is translated “fruit that will last” but it is more correctly rendered “fruit that will abide.”
Can you see the train of logic that Jesus is drawing? The more we abide in Christ, the more we will bear fruit that will last. But the chain of logic goes back even further because Jesus claims to abide win the unity of the Father and the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-31). So, the full concept that Jesus is giving is this:
Just as the Father, the Holy Spirit and I abide together, so I want you to abide in me so that the natural outcome is fruit that abides eternally.
This is the great outcome of abiding well. It’s easily said but it’s harder to apply. The obvious application is that we should spend time with Christ in the Word and prayer – ie. Quiet Times. But, it’s more than that. Christ wants us to abide in Him all the time, not just in special, “sanctified” moments.
Let’s put it another way as a question: “How do I abide in Christ when I’m not reading the Bible?”
When we’re in our homes, families, workplaces, sporting clubs, schools, socially, how do we abide in Christ? How do we abide in Christ when I’m disciplining my children, when I’m in financial stress, when I’m fighting with my spouse, when I’m succeeding, when I’m relaxing, etc?
The answer is in the verse: "if my words abide in you." The answer is letting the words of Christ dwell intimately, invasively into our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit – not just in the Quiet Times but in everything we do.
That’s the question each of us needs to ponder. But it’s worth pondering because when we do work it through, apply it and “abide in Christ” wherever we are, it will be in that place that we bear much fruit and glorify God (John 15:8).